Shocker VB vs Cincinnati - Senior Day

[1972Shocker]

WICHITA STATE (15-12, 10-6 American)

Sunday, Nov. 20 (1:00 p.m. CT) vs. Cincinnati (9-18, 7-10 American)
Wichita, Kansas (Charles Koch Arena)
Live Stats // Watch

While the Shockers do not have any true seniors on the roster, libero Lily Liekweg will be playing in her final home match on Sunday. Listed as a junior athletically due to the lost 2020 COVID season, Liekweg will be graduating from Wichita State in December with a degree in Finance.

Middle blocker Natalie Foster has hit better than .400 in eight of her last nine matches, with only three attack errors in her last 69 attempts.


SCOUTING THE BEARCATS:

• Cincinnati comes into play on Sunday with an overall record of 9-18, including 7-10 in American Athletic Conference action.
• The Bearcats swept Tulsa on the road Friday night, marking three wins in their last four matches.
• The Bearcats feature a balanced offensive attack, with four different hitters (Carly Glendinning, Abby Walker, Avry Tatum, Shaye Eggleston) currently between 196 and 278 kills on the season.
• Sunday will be a matchup of two of the conference's youngest rosters. The Bearcats lean heavily upon youth in the regular rotation, featuring a freshman and a sophomore at the setter position and each of the four leading hitters as underclassmen.
• Cincinnati has struggled to slow down opposing attacks this season, allowing opponents to hit .247 for the second-worst mark in the conference and 309th nationally.
• The Bearcats played a loaded non-conference schedule, highlighted by five straight matches against teams either ranked or receiving votes in the AVCA poll. Cincinnati went 1-4 in those contests, beating Florida State and pushing #10-ranked Pittsburgh to five sets.
• Head coach Molly Alvey is the third-winningest active coach in The American, with 234 overall wins. Now in her 11th season at Cincinnati, Alvey guided the Bearcats to a stretch of three NCAA tournament appearances in four years from 2016-2019.

https://goshockers.com/news/2022/11/...incinnati.aspx

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Will Sophia be in the lineup in this one? Can Natalie continue her oustanding play as of late?

I believe the Shockers have 4th place locked up but I would like to see them play well and win 2 of these final 3 matches against Cincy, SMU and Memphis to close out the regular season If Sophia is not healthy that will be a bit of a challenge. Even if Sophia is healthy none of these matches are a sure thing.

[1972Shocker]

Nice to see Lily in the lineup on her Senior Day. Sophia also in teh lineup had has been effective early and Natalie is being Natalie. So a good start for the Shocks. Hopefully, they can keep it up.

Cincinnati coming back with Natalie's rotation on the bench. Was 21-12. Now 21-16. Shocker timeout.

Effective timeout as it was followed by a Brylee kill, a Brylee/MorganS block, a Kayce service ace and a Sophia/MorganS block. Shocks take set 1, 25-16.

Those were the Shocks only 2 blocks of the set. The Shoccks had a very good 16 to 9 advantage in kills. Well above their norm for kills in a set.

[1972Shocker]

The tide turns in set 2. Cincy jumps out to a 9-3 lead.

[1972Shocker]

Cincy goes on to a 25 -19 win set 2 but the Shocks bounce back to take sets 3 and 4 by scores of -18 and -21.

Sophia and Natalie were outstnding in this match and Brylee was very good as well.

[flyingMoose]

Sunday Matches

UCF 3-0 Temple
17, 20, 22

SMU 1-3 Houston
15-, 22-, -25, 19-

Memphis 3-0 Tulsa
21, 20, 24

USF 1-3 East Carolina
24-, 21-, -18, 21-


Shockers are guaranteed fourth in the conference, no higher, no lower. One would hope that is enough to get a bid to the NIVC. SMU will surely be there also.

[Critter's Pa]

Nice match from Kayce. She had 16 or 17 assists in the first set and finished with 50 assist and a team leading 14 digs. She also had 2 aces. Kayce had a sweet one handed, no look, behind her back setter dump for a kill. She had 14 attempts a few of them were full swings on the ball.

Brylee had one of her better games of the year going 19-5-36 for .398. She had 9 digs and 4 block assists.
Natalie had one of her usual games- 17-2-25 for a cool .600. She also got 5 digs, that might be close to a career high.
Sophia had no errors, had 13 kills on 21 swings for .619. Sophia had 4 digs, and 5 block assists.
Lauren had a day at the net with a team leading 6 block assists, she also scored two of the last three points to close out the match.

Play was stopped twice for two injuries. Lauren had a cut on her finger or lost a fingernail, I couldn't tell from where I was sitting. There was quite a bit of time devoted to cleaning up spots of blood off the floor. A few plays later, the Cincy libero had what appeared to be a finger injury and some more blood clean up. I never knew volleyballs were so sharp.

Annalie subbed in the back row for Brylee for a couple of rotations. Lara went back to subbing in for Sophia since Lily was the libero. She didn't look like she had much rust to knock off.

[WstateU]

[1972Shocker]

Foster, Litzau Named to Weekly Honor Roll

https://goshockers.com/news/2022/11/21/volleyball-foster-litzau-named-to-weekly-honor-roll.aspx

Wichita State sophomore middle blocker Natalie Foster and junior setter Kayce Litzau were named to the American Athletic Conference Weekly Honor Roll on Monday.

It's the fifth weekly honor for Foster, who has now been named to the Honor Roll in three consecutive weeks, and the second selection of the year for Litzau.

Foster and Litzau powered the Shockers to a pair of four-set wins this past week, besting Tulsa on the road Wednesday and Cincinnati on Sunday in the regular season home finale. Foster continued her offensive surge with 33 total kills, 16 versus Tulsa and 17 against the Bearcats, hitting a combined .566 in the process.

Over her last ten matches, the Foster is averaging 3.6 kills per set and hitting .469. Her connection with Litzau has been nearly unstoppable, as the Shocker setter piled up 99 assists in the two wins this week, good for 12.4 per set. Litzau's impact on the defensive side has proven equally impressive, leading the Shockers with 14 digs on Sunday and adding 11 more against Tulsa. Litzau also contributed seven total kills, six blocks, and three service aces to go along with her efficient setting. She finished Sunday's match with a set percentage of .476, recording 50 assists on 105 total sets.

Foster now ranks 29th nationally with a season hitting percentage of .387, and Litzau has entered the top 50 in total assists with 1,074 (46th).

[jimshocker]

FYI.

Kid came to WSU a star. Not sure what you would call her time here?

Kid transferred back out of WSU. Conference Champ. NCAA Bid. All Conference Player.

M. Buss another that transferred and tore up WSU.

What story will the transfer portal show us about WSU this year?

On the Mens BBall page people would be questioning the coach? Err…are questioning the coach.

K. Newsome article clip.

“Newsome, a junior outside hitter from Houston, Texas, returned to Southeastern this season from Wichita State and immediately returned to her All-Southland form after being named SLC Freshman of the Year and All-Conference First Team in 2020. This season, she was the lone Southland Conference player among the NCAA top-50 in kills per set average, averaging 4.09. Newsome also led the Lady Lions in service aces with 31 on the year. In conference play, she averaged 4.19 kills per set and was second in the SLC in points per set at 4.58 kills per set. She had nine double-doubles in conference play and was the only player in the SLC to be named Conference Offensive Player of the Week three times.”

[WuDrWu]

Dude, give it a rest. Call Lambo and sort it out, whatever your issues are.

I'm happy both ladies are enjoying success where they are. Newsome wasn't ANYWHERE NEAR an all conference player in the AAC. She's found personal success at her level. Nothing wrong with that. Not sure what you are trying to imply here.

[jimshocker]

Dude, give it a rest. Call Lambo and sort it out, whatever your issues are.

I'm happy both ladies are enjoying success where they are. Newsome wasn't ANYWHERE NEAR an all conference player in the AAC. She's found personal success at her level. Nothing wrong with that. Not sure what you are trying to imply here.

Dude, her level? Is D1. And She and her team will be playing in the NCAA tournament.

What are you trying to imply? WSU is not at the NCAA tournament level? Finally!! Something correct that we agree on.

[flyingMoose]

Not that anybody will care since minds are made up, but here is some Pablo stuff. Again, 5000 is an average team.


American Athletic

Conference Avg 5303

Wichita State 5575, T88 of 345 schools


Southland Conference

Conference Avg 4319

Southeastern Louisiana 5030 (the only school above 5000), 157 of 345 schools

Southeastern, the #2 seed, beat Houston Christian, the #1 seed, 3-1 in the Conference Tournament finals.

Newsome wasn't ANYWHERE NEAR an all-conference player in the AAC. She's found personal success at her level. Nothing wrong with that.

It seems she was unlikely to ever see much of the court at WSU, so ...